


What lied unseen

by DepressedBastard



Category: Bloodborne (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Blood and Violence, F/F, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:23:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29924415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DepressedBastard/pseuds/DepressedBastard
Summary: Her kind is helping.
Relationships: The Hunter/Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Kudos: 4





	1. I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her kind was helping.

An emty cup of tea set next to her on a flat stone as she had just finished it during a long conversation with the one considered her friend, though that particular friend wasn’t a being of flesh but man-made.

Anna did not really mind about the fact, as long as she felt happy for chatting with the Plain Doll.

“Hunters have told me about the church. About the gods, and their love. But... do the gods love their creations? I am a doll, created by you humans. Would you ever think to love me? Of course... I do love you."

Anna stroke her auburn red hair, “I love people who stand with me. You’re one of them.”

She paused and rested her hand under her chin, “And of course, Gods love their creations.”

Doll tilted her head, “Have you ever seen a God, good hunter? People talk many things of them, but never they really see one in their life. Could Gods be an illusion of mankind to help them feel stronger at what they’re bad?”

The female hunter fell quiet. A few seconds was what she might have need to draw a proper answer.

And she hummed in response.

“Perhaps. Or perhaps not...”

Anna leaned back on the tree and looked up to the sky, seeing the big moon in the middle of the darkness above the Hunter’s Dream somehow made she feel peaceful at the core of her soul.

“But, I do think they exist. The problem is, we don’t feel them sometimes. It’s not the matter of us describing what Gods look like, but how they are.”

The conversation came to a moment of soundlessness. Anna found her cup emty. Thus, she reached for the teapot and filled it.

“You want some?” She gestured Doll, but the dear friend refused with a shake of head.

“I… I don’t know hunger and thirst, drink and eat. I am a Doll, remember?”

Anna reacted to what she heard by a sad chuckle, “Oh… Sorry…”

By averting her eyes to the Doll, she muttered under her breath, “Damn you Gehrman.”

But soon she realized it was time to return to the job.

The hunter went back into the workshop and started preparing. While she was cleaning her curved sword, her eyes caught the sight of a small notebook staying in a corner of the shelf. Anna was not actually a person with a high sense of curiosity, but this time it had got the better of her.

A few pages skimmed through gave Anna the acknowledgement of what that notebook was about.

“Hm, Great Ones and the Old Blood.” She closed and put it in her personal blue satchel, “I’m keeping you, buddy.”

And subsiquently, the beast-slayer headed to continue the journey, as Anna wished it to end as soon as possible because when the ship had left the land of her hometown halfway around the world, she had been unexpected on ending up in a long bloody hunt, nor being a goddamn chosen hunter.

.

Defeating Amelia wasn’t really easy for the huntress. However, she managed to complete it without getting killed. The beast was much bigger than her, giving Anna the opportunity to make the most of her physical body to dodge and roll between her legs. Anna didn’t rush the stage of the fight and it paid her a great reward.

But getting a few wounds forced her to use blood vials afterwards.

On the altar, a strange-shaped skull was put, forming a coldness to spread through Anna’s spine when she came to realize it was shining. She reached to touch it and to her surprise, something dark struck her a hard way in the eyes.

_“Master Wilem, I’ve come to bid you farewell.”_

_“Oh I know, I know.” A male voice sounded, “You think now, to betray me.”_

_The first voice came again with a blurred perspective from behind a chair, “No, but you’ll never listen.”, and it was similar to a little hope clutching to the final attempt of persuading, “I tell you, I will not forget our adage.”_

_Sitting tight on the chair and swaying lightly in the dim room, Master raised his voice._

_“We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open…” He didn’t stop when the other man came a halt beside him and together, they stated._

_“Fear the old blood.”_

_The rest was blank and empty, before another line was drawn out._

_“I must take my leave.”_

_Alone in the room that had been occupied by him and his fellow but now no more of the other’s presence, Master Wilem sighed, clenching his fists on the chair._

_“By the gods, fear it, Laurence.”_

Anna got to the reality. Her hands trembled.

“…” She fell numb impermanently, “Initiation of Yharnamities’ habit.”

As she lit the lamp, her mind jumped into thinking about a late hunter who used to mention about the succumbed citizens, blessed ones but also patients of the blood.

_“Beasts all over the shop…_

_You will be one of them, sooner or later…”_

“He didn’t make it…” She released a sad expression on her face and bit her lower lip, using two fingers to rub her eyebrows while thinking _, “Could there be a chance, that someday, as he said, I become… a monster?”_

Anna surely didn’t want to answer it herself. She looked at the remaining blood vials in her belongings and sighed heavily.

_“Do folks need this to be bloodlust? Or is it them who are already beasts if without laws and virtue?”_

She smacked her tongue and tried to sweep all thought of it from her mind as her kind always had. Returning to the Hunter’s Dream wouldn’t be a bad choice.

.

Anna wandered outside, staring at the object she had just founded in the Hunter’s Dream. It took the shape of a pupil that turned to mush, indicating the onset of the scourge of beasts.

“Yikes!” She poked her tongue while eyeing it and didn’t notice a big hand raised on the air, definitely moving toward her direction. Anna couldn’t react on time as she was grabbed and gripped by Amygdala, before getting tossed to its head.

“Curse the fiends, their children too. And their children, forever, true.”

What happened next was her finding herself standing in a place much likely as the Oedon Chapel, but smaller. A feeling of cold and rushing stayed in the back of her head as well as the goosebump displayed on her skin very quickly soon when she got a few stepped closer to the familiar lamp on the way.

Anna collected some more blood vials along the way that seemed to be endless, for she definitely needed them. Using blood to heal was something familiar to her and also to the folks of the city, even when she wasn’t fond of the method. People took thousand years, or million years to go through the evolution and learned to drink, to eat the right way. Therefore, she didn’t see there should be to take a step backward and return from whence they were at the beginning. Meeting blood – starving monsters and corrupted men had already made she feel bad enough, thus, she admitted that there was no need to step on the same problem as them.

Dozens of Huntsmen were patrolling and killing on the path, but instead of confronting them, Anna chose to play stealth and walked past all of them.

 _“Barging thoughtlessly into combat is a choice of stupidity, sometimes.”_ A speech appeared in her head as she finally crossed the last enemy without being detected.

Upon reaching a small slope and proceeded, she met a man standing in a corner of the corridor. The man wore a worn outfit with a small hood covering his head.

Before Anna could say something to him, he raised his eyes and surprisingly, greeted her, “Oh, hi. You're a hunter with your sanity, aren't you? Must've taken a wrong turn then, eh?”

Anna twitched her mouth, “Mm, depends on who you are.”

The man rubbed his face up and down, “Well then, we're more alike than you think. This is the Hunter's Nightmare, where hunters end up when drunk with blood. You've seen them before. Aimless, wandering hunters, slavering like beasts.”

“Hunter’s Nightmare?”

“True. This is what the poor fools have to look forward to. So, don't be brash, turn back before it's too late. Unless, you've something of an interest in nightmares?”

Anna narrowed her eyes to look at the man and chuckled.

“I’m not sure. But you know, some people could see nightmares very fascinating.”

She paused, looking around and then pouted, “Hmm, I’m only starting to have a little bit curiosity for this place.”

In return, the man said, “Ah yes… You sense a secret within the Nightmare. And cannot bear to leave it be.”

Anna felt agitated, “Secret? I see… But who are you exactly? Why did you end up here?”

“Just call me Simon. And I used to be a blood – drunk in the early ages, just no longer now. That’s why I’m here, lady.”

“I see… You must have done wrong in the lust of stench.” Anna shook her head.

Simon nodded, “As if the spirit of Byrgenwerth lives on within you! Such inquisitive hunters will relish the Nightmare. But beware, secrets are secrets for a reason. And some do not wish to see them uncovered. Especially when the secrets are particularly unseemly…”

Anna, again, shook her head in frustration, “Oh man, you should have been a psychologist, not staying here.”

Simon didn’t reply and Anna couldn’t do anything else but bid him farewell to go on.

.

Having dealt with some Carrion Crows, the hunter headed toward a cave-like area. After picking up a Pebble on her left hand path, Anna opened her satchel, tending to put the item in, but was abusively attacked by an enemy from behind. It grabbed her by the collar and pierced something sharp through her right eye violently, merely gouging it out that drove Anna insane in agony. The huntress broke its contact by a stab with her hunting knife to its waist. Soon Anna got back her mild composure and recognized blood was flooding out from her destroyed eye and run to her mouth. For her lips were a bit open yet not shut, a slim string of red catched her tongue, and eventually, somehow awoke a sense of difference craving to be freed from her chest. Anna gritted her teeth, swinging her sword repeatedly toward the ogre and despite the effort of dodging, the fiend got cut by its chest as blood spat all over the female hunter’s long coat. Losing no chance, Anna forcefully plunged it to the enemy’s body, before letting her short knife do its work by diving into the monster’s head and slashed beyond its skull.

She had to spare herself a few seconds to calm down from the intense murder and took a deep breath after injecting a vial of blood to her thigh.

“Dear oh dear… What’s that?” She put a hand on both of her eyes and exhaled in relief as her damaged orb was then back to normal.

The next battle was, to her memory, a disaster of hell when she faced none other than Ludwig, the Accursed. To Anna, death was like a wind, always by her side since the very moment she accepted to be a beast killer and needless to say they didn’t leave her any chance to be subjective as they would rush and kill her whenever they could. However, in Ludwig, she found something strange. Something that made her feel like this one was trying not only to cut her down but also to wake himself up, especially upon he grabbed his guilding moonlight.

Several times of being defeated did not discourage the good hunter. She came back time and time again, changing her gears and weapons variously every once or twice of the returning. The sixth time Anna transferred through the fog of the Nightmare, she, suddenly, found a lowered beam near a pile of corpses. An idea jumped in a corner of her mind.

“I must try.” She muttered under her breath while dodging Ludwig’s waves of attack.

The fight stepped to a new stage when Ludwig decided to charge his holy sword. That was what Anna sought for. She immediately performed a mad dash toward the pile of corpses and reached for the edge of the beam above.

A plunged strike was critical and deadly for mostly every enemy. Evidently, Ludwig was not an exception. His body got cut by the blade but his head remained on the floor. Anna hesitated for not knowing whether she should come closer to it. But in the end, she gained her bravery and did so.

She was startled when Ludwig abruptly opened his eyes to look at her directly.

“Tell me, good hunter of the Church. Have you seen the light?” His voice trembled, “Are my Church hunters the honorable spartans I hoped they would be?”

At first, Anna didn’t know how to answer properly. Seeing hunters and people turning to beasts, blood – thristy ones, and slaughtered in the deep of being mindless made her feel bitter and sad at the same time.

“Mm, I… think so. Yes…” She lied, blinking her eyes.

“Ahh, good… that is a relief.” He told her, “To know I did not suffer such denigration for nothing.”

“…”

“Thank you kindly. Now I may sleep in peace. Even in this darkest of nights, I see… the moonlight…”

“I don’t really get it. What do you mean you suffered?”

“Ahhh… A long story, good hunter. You might know it someday.” He said in a sad tone, when a glistening object appeared near the back of his head.

Anna took it but the Holy Sword was a bit heavy for her to lift it up smoothly. As she turned to leave, Ludwig called her from behind.

“If you please… kill me, I’ll be grateful.” He said as if he was begging.

“Why?” Anna raised her eyebrow, “I think you could do no more harm.”

“This is an endless cycle. To be liberated is what we seem to yearn for. So please, at least…In this state of mine, dying by the hand of a proud good hunter of the Church… is an honor to me.”

To what Anna saw of him, she knew that was for his own good. She did a dignified bow to the man, and slowly brought her sword over her head.

“Rest in peace, fella.” Anna whispered.

Ludwig, with the last strength of his, released a line of tears before everything went black under Anna’s merciful execution.

.

Anna lit the lamp and returned to the Hunter’s Dream.

“Don’t know if I can still handle this.”

\---

“Arrrhhh, come on! Stop firing!” The huntress shouted while running away from the bullet rain of a gatling gun, “How the hell you have it?”

She threw herself into an elevator and fortunately, it went down right at the moment another mad patient reach the door and therefore, he got was stuck on the track of the platform and cut separated to his lower body. Witnessing the scene of entrails and other organs fell all over in front of Anna made she feel sick in the stomach and vomited on the floor.

“Damn! Man, that was nasty and needless.” Her face contorted in disgust as she walked on tiptoe out of the elevator, not wanting to step on the body of the poor guy.

And to her surprise, another guest on the right spew something hot burning to her.

“Ewww!! Is that… Is that acid?” She attempted to clean the remaining liquid stuck on her clothes. As a result of being irritated, Anna caught the mad patient by her bare hands and threw him over the banister.

A cold feelings reached her as she sensed an eye staring her from somewhere. However, she didn’t find anyone after a while of looking around. When her steps were fading away, from above, a smile appeared after a sigh.

_“Hm... A visitor? How unexpected…”_

_…_

Once she successfully got to the bottom, she found another enlarged head patient who was tied to a wooden chair. She gripped her sword in an intention to defend, but soon learned that the other one didn’t ask for any trouble. The female hunter slowly and carefully paced toward the patient, seeing the head of that person was moving as if he or she was trying to hear or feel the surrounding.

“Is that you, Lady Maria?”

Anna straightened herself, “…”

“No, you're someone else. Please, could you do something for me?”

“You… don’t look like them. I mean, the other patients. Some of them attacked me.” Anna sheathed her weapon and looked around, “Just what’re you doing in this place?”

“Oh, forgive me. Where’s my manner?” She made a sound similar to a chuckle, “Call me Adeline, would you? I am a patient in this research hall.”

“You really?” Anna sat down on one knee before the chair, “Hm, ‘coz you’re not like the guys out there.”

“Oh, they’re the patients here, either. I’m sorry for what they’ve done to you. Failure and disappointment must have turned them into that.”

“Hm, okay… You mentioned ehh… you need my help in something?” Anna performed a slight shrug.

“Ah, of course I do need your help. We call it Brain Fluid. Please, kind friend, bring them to me. I need it to follow a call of achievement. And in return, I surely will give you reward.”

Anna made a hum in her throat as she sighed upon hearing the request of the patient.

“Jesus… Brain Fluid…” she turned to Adeline, “Do you know where it is. For I can get the item quicker.”

“I believe you have already seen many people look like me in this building. Find the ones with their heads severed enlarged. You should get it from them.” Adeline responded.

Anna wrinkled her nose in thinking. But at last, she nodded in agreement.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“I’m very glad for that. And please, stay safe.”

The hunter headed outside the room and wandered everywhere she could to find that kind of fluid for Adeline. Thanks to her patience, she finally got two jars of it, and quickly she returned to where Adeline was.

“Hello? Is that who I think it is? Please, oh please, I need Brain Fluid. The sticky sound is fading fast. Adeline started to beg desperately, “Without it, I'll be sent back... To my former, lesser years... Have as much of my blood as you like...”

When Anna gave her what she needed, she didn’t hesitate to slurp all of it.

“Ahh... ahh... Thank you, thank you so much. You have saved me. Take this charm. Lady Maria gave it to me, but it is all I can offer, other than my own blood, such as I always do to serve people. Please, do not abandon me... I promise to do good...” Adeline delivered her gratitude to the good hunter.

And Anna, in return, nodded kindly, “Oh, your welcome. Just, you should have told me about how to get it. I couldn’t believe I had to put pressure to their heads so that the fluid could come out. Ehh...” She paused, finding herself standing near the edge of vomiting while thinking of that. Luckily, she managed to stand it firmly.

“Oh!” Adeline chuckled at that, “You’re a hunter, aren’t you? Then you must have been through many horrible things from the start. That’s quite surprising to see you feel disgusted by it.”

Anna shook her head, “Nah, being a hunter doesn’t mean I lost all my emotions. Beside… You keep saying the name of that lady. Who’s she then?”

“Ahh, so you haven’t known yet?” Adeline asked with a higher tone.

“Mm hm”, Anna came to pull a chair in a corner closer to Adeline and sat down on it, “Enlighten me, if you would.”

Some fingers of Adeline’s left hand twitched in the noiseless moment between the two as if she was recalling something in her head. Her enlarged head.

“Lady Maria is a very close friend of mine. She had already been here, in this research hall for long when I first came as a volunteer of the experiment, since I promised to do good for the betterment of humanity. During the experiments, I was often sleepless, so she stayed by me and talked with me, a lot.”

To this point, her voice changed by all of the sudden, from a normal one to a piece of sadness and missing.

“What then?” Anna raised a question, “Are you okay?”

The Blood Saint tried to nod and proceeded.

“But then, I don’t meet her so often like we used to. Sometimes she came and of course we shared stories, but I did and I do feel like there was something, perhaps a burden, hidden in her chest. She never told me about that. The number of times for our meeting became fewer. Finally… She no longer come here. I sense her presence, but I have no idea why she doesn’t come… Does she hate me for not being good enough? I don’t know…”

Anna leaned backward on the chair and gently clapped her finger on the back of Adeline’s hand. Being distant wasn’t easy for many people.

“You miss her, don’t you?” Anna asked, and Adeline didn’t do anything else but nodded.

The patient added, “You know… Somehow you resemble her to me. The way she sat there, touching my hand and listened to all my dumbass ideas… I really appreciate your kindness, good hunter.”

A corner of Anna’s lips formed a soft smile as she stood up and stretched both arms, “No, thank you, for everything you did. Your blood is precious…”

“Should you meet Lady Maria, please send her my regard.” Adeline said, and was accepted by the huntress.

As she stepped out of the door and looked downstairs, a few other patients were chasing each other playfully. Strange! Nightmares usually did not contain relaxation and entertainment. But perhaps Ludwig was right. There could be a light at the end of the tunnel as well as the optimistic seeing a flower in a field that was full of spikes.

Time to say goodbye with Adeline before going on.

As Anna returned to the room, she was stunned seeing Adeline, now in the shape of a giant head laying on the ground.

“What the hell is this?” She gulped.

“Oh, hello... One last time, will you fetch Brain Fluid, just one last time? The murky murky, mushy fluid that will make me whole.” The other said.

“My God, you’re an addicted!”

“Please, give me Brain Fluid. The sticky sound whispers, I need my baptism. Ahh, or perhaps, I… I’m already brimming over...” And then the deformed patient begged in maniacal chuckling, “Oh, it’s in me. Please, hit me, hit me hard. And give it to me. That will make me whole.”

Anna didn’t figure out what she should do yet as she complied to the order.

Once the final dose was given, the Saint giggled contiuously, to the point her voice started to break down.

“Ahhh! I see the shape! My guide, I see your voice, clearly as it bends and bleeds.” She didn’t stop laughing, giving Anna a moment of frowning in concern.

“God… Are you fine, Adeline?”

There wasn’t any answer from the other and only after a few seconds, Adeline broke the silence of the room by breathlessly whispering.

“Thank you. For everything... Really, I used to be nothing...”

And then she bloated like a drowned pig, before softening on the floor to be completely motionless. Anna partly guessed what was wrong with the patient as she knelt down on her knees and touched her.

“Adeline? Adeline!”

Seeing no reaction had put a stone in her stomach. She covered her mouth and her nose in disbelief and felt pity for the other’s fate when she learned that Adeline was cold as a corpse. Bitterness and guilt soon came to greet her mind.

“Oh no… What’ve I done? No…”

She crawled forward the poor one and put a hand on her, softly stroking her late “friend” and grimaced in frustration.

“Sweet mother of love… Please, embrace her.”

.

A flame alighted, covering the cinder and wooden sticks in its lap, before wrapping around Adeline’s corpse. Anna stayed there for more than an hour. Adeline was one of the very few people who helped instead of wanting her die. Now, alone, was the moment for the hunter to recall everything that had been occurring since the beginning of the hunt. Many people had died and many others had been drawn into messes. The endless hunt, the decease, the mad patients in the hall, the Great Ones, the curse and the freaking damn Old Blood, all of them, were long and evidently, there wasn’t any undoubtedly clear solution.

Anna smacked her tongue in grief and then looked at the small Rune that was left by Adeline. Surely she would keep it, as it was a momento to remember her by…

Because she was not born a serial killer.

Because she was born of love.

Love and respect for everyone who stayed by her side.

And everyone that went past her life.

 _“Should you meet Lady Maria, please send her my regard.”_ Adeline’s speech bounced in her head.

“I will.”

From nowhere, and perhaps somewhere, again, an eye was following.

_“Lost in the nightmare. That beastly legend and those ailing wards of the church... I know what you did to them... It's not your fault. The nightmare held them, and now they are free.”_

Anna, who was standing and chewing her melancholy, felt a shiver slap her in the face. She got back to reality.

The glass of wine was still on the table, but the one who drank it was out of sight.

_“But, what about you? Have you profited at all?”_

The saber in the lap, as the head lowered, legs crossed, thinking.

_“Nightmares and secrets... They will only get you so far. Now you can leave this place.”_

Anna went her way back to the lamp and found the harrowed man standing there.

“Ahh, we meet again. Good to see you safe and sound.”

“Mm hm, you, too.” Anna replied.

“Well, I have to tell you this, hunter. If you’re a real secret seeker, then there’s one thing I suppose you must do to gain your goal.”

“What’s that?” Anna tilted her head, confused.

“Climb and kill Maria atop the Astral Clocktower. She HIDES a real secret.”

 _“Maria? Lady Maria? Is that who Adeline told me?”_ The huntress wondered in her mind.

She didn’t say anything more but touched the lamp to go back the Hunter’s Dream.

_“That’s right. Go! Run away. Run away and NEVER return! Listen to the hunt calling and let this whole filth rot till the end of time. For your own sake.”_


	2. II

Having a map would help her much. Shamefully, she didn’t own one. Therefore, her legs kept pacing from corner to corner in the big hall. Luckily, she unlocked a barricaded door.

It seemed that it was an old storage room. With a small lantern on her hand, Anna studied the place in which many boxes of items and papers stocked, until she realized there was a safe on the wall. Destroying its lock cost her much energy, but it was worthy as she saw two envelopes in it beside a pair of blood – stained gloves.

Anna turned to close the door and put the lantern on the floor. Reading private letters wasn’t good. Nonetheless in the stench of blood and ambition to reveal the true core of the Nightmare, she found it unnecessary to draw a line this time.

The first letter was from Gehrman.

_“Old friend Ludwig;_

_I’m writing this letter to ask you about the Church and the Research Hall. Is everything good? By the way, thank you for staying with us in the Fishing Hamlet. Though that was awful, I think._

_Secondly, I’m worrying about Maria. She seems to be broken and upset since we came back from our last duty. The girl shows clear disappoinment and depression in her eyes. I believe it is because she was shocked of what happened there, in the Hamlet, where things went out of control. Maria is a good person with a heart of gold, yet she knows what must be done. The problem is, I have no idea whether she could find a way to release that burden or not. For I’m on my way of hunting beasts, it will take me a few weeks completing the task and return, so please, do me a favor by keeping your eyes on her._

_Thank you deeply._

_Your friend_

_Gehrman.”_

.

Anna turned to another letter.

_“A hello from me to you, Gehrman;_

_That’s my pleasure to be accompanied with the hunters. We know that bloodshed is sometimes inevitable. At least, we got what we need. You don’t need to worry about the Church and the Research Hall. Adeline seems to make it pretty well and Maria stays by our side whenever we need._

_Speaking about Maria, I feel sadness in her, too. Gehrman, I know you see her as a daughter of yours since she was the only one who you could totally put your great love to, after your child’s death. I know I cannot relace you to care for her, but as a friend of both of you, I promise to do my best for the lady and keep her safe._

_Last but not least, I hope the hunt goes smoothly with you and my other fellers. We can have a toast when you people return._

_Faithfully_

_Ludwig.”_

“Been bound by destiny… or maybe by something more…” Anna muttered, “Guess I’ll have a talk with the old man, then…”

.

The lamp went bright and a familiar figure came “home”.

In all ways she could do to start the conversation with Gehrman, she chose to go inside the workshop and prepare some tea. A heart – warming drink would be better to break the ice of chatting.

Anna exited the building and headed outside the garden. Under the moonlight and on a higher place of the lumenflower garden, sat the very hunter on a wheelchair. He must have been dripping off again. The younger one shook his arm, pulling him out of his dream.

“Ah, oh, what’s it, my hunter? Is there anything I can do to help you?” He asked.

“Well… Actually, I’ve just been in a strange place. A man I met there told me it was the Hunter’s Nightmare.” She gestured into the air, “Do you know what it is?”

A glint in Gehrman’s eyes showed its way as he lifted his face to look at Anna directly.

“So, you finally got to it.”

Anna laid the tray on the flat rock next to his wheelchair while her mouth continued, “I suppose.” The huntress poured some tea and gave a cup to him. Gehrman didn’t refuse such kindness.

“Strange… I met some people among the beasts and crazy stuffs. They mentioned me a name several times and also a story of that one.” Anna sipped her drink, “Lady Maria. You know her?”

A heavy sigh from the old hunter was on behalf of the answer made Anna understand it almost immediately.

“Did you meet her? The woman you said.”

Anna shook her head in response, making Gehrman do nothing but to throw his sight far away to the sky. He took another gulp of tea.

“I see you and Doll are a good friend to each other, Anna.”

“Oh? Oh, maybe. But what’s that then?”

“Do you see anything remarkable in Doll? Something brilliant, dynamic or different from other women. Do you even see a little of it?”

Anna spent a few seconds to think throughoutly, and frowned, “Hm, I don’t think so. She’s… good, but yeah, a bit of dull and obedient. Oh, poor her.”

Hence, Gehrman let out a silent chuckle but it sounded loud enough for Anna to hear.

“Of course you don’t, good hunter. Because a copy can never ever replace the original…”

“You mean…” Anna’s eyes widened in astonishment after hearing the implication, “…”

The two sat there for a while in silence as none of them neither said a word. Anna gathered every information she had got and forced herself into thinking deeply.

The teacups turned cool in the night winds. Anna stood up, bowing her head to the man.

“Is there anything else you want to share with me?” She politely asked, knowing that the man was wearing a bundle of confessions yet hadn’t been made.

Gehrman, in return, asked her a favor.

“Yes. Although that’s a dangerous place to be, I hope you keep yourself safe and learn from your mistakes. As we the old hunters committed seriously in the past, without a chance to undo it.”

Anna exhaled and by a low voice, she spoke, “I’ll see what I can do.”

As she turned on her heels, Gehrman reached to grab her by the sleeve. His grip was a combination of imploration and prevention, though Anna didn’t know why she saw that in him.

“If you have a chance to turn back, do it. Don’t risk being a seeker of what lies unseen. For liberation is what they crave for, but protection of your future is what matters most. Be a good one, not a naïve and fearless. Because that could kill you forever.” Gehrman noted, then he released Anna’s wrist.

Anna had left the Hunter’s Dream, leaving Gehrman alone to his own privacy and eventually, a chance to whisper into the air.

“I am sorry, my child. I failed you.”

And he dreamed again.

.

_A cloudy afternoon wasn’t really good for someones’ mood._

_Ludwig was announced that Gehrman had returned from the hunt._

_“Ahh, old friend. Good to see you again.” The Holy Blade extended his arms for a big brother hug._

_“Nice to meet you again, feller. I guess everything goes well here, doesn’t it? What about Maria?” Gehrman asked by a tired voice after his long journey._

_“Ah, the young girl. She’s been better recently, I believe. I gave her some advice and, well, cakes. She appreciated it so much.” Ludwig confidently stroke his curly black hair._

_Gehrman pursed his lips and nodded, “Hm, that should do. Where’s she now?”_

_Ludwig pointed somewhere behind himself, “In the research hall. This morning I came to her and she was taking care of the patients. Adeline seems to be good enough, too. Man, things are on the way right now.”_

_Gehrman, while was walking together with his friend, continued the conversation, “Fine. Soon we might have the result we want. And once we did, Maria wouldn’t feel so bad anymore.”_

_Ludwig, “So now are you going to visit her?”_

_Gehrman turned to him, “Maybe, but I’ll go see Laurence first. He wants to have a talk with me.”_

_As they walked through the staircases, a nurse, from out of nowhere, ran to them with a sweating face and after she found them, she stopped to take her own breath._

_“Oh, Mr. Gehrman…”_

_“No need to rush, Miss. Tell me, what’s the matter?” Gehrman tried to calm her down._

_And the nurse gestured upstairs, by a hard trembling hand and a pale face._

_“Lady Maria… Maria, she…”_

_“What of her?” Now this time it was Gehrman who rushed the speaking._

_“She… she’s dead! You must come and see her.”_

_Three of them made a dash mad to where the nurse pointed them to as sparing their feet were not what they could do. The research hall was too familiar to Gehrman and Ludwig but they were now lacking the idea of figuring out why the hell it was so big and the way to Maria’s place was so long that Gehrman himself saw it was such as an eternity to reach her. He pushed everything stood on his path violently and aimed atop the Astral Clocktower. Nothing was more important to him than she now. He prayed in his mouth for the girl’s good fortune and the moment he got to the entrance of the big room, he swore he was never going to forget the scene._

_“Maria…” He mummured under his breath._

_He took steps into the room. Slowly and gently. Contradicting to how he did that, a bell tolled in his head when he saw Maria on the chair, next to a round table on which a glass was put. Two other nurses saw him come as they retreated backward to spare him some space._

_Gehrman made a halt in front of the very precious one of his life. He saw her blood all over the outfit she was wearing and it was time – consuming for him to squeeze her shoulder._

_Her body slumped aside. Her arm fell over the chair._

_Gehrman’s fists tightened in disbelief and pain as he gritted his teeth a hard way, hearing them making a bone sound in his mouth and then, the man fell himself flat on the ground with his rear._

_Losing the people who are very close to is by the truth, the cruelty that we undoubtedly do not smile at._

_He lost her._

_He lifted his hands to cover his face and at the entrance, Ludwig stood numb, his mouth hanged open._

_Soon he found a paper held in Maria’s hand… He lifted her up and put the woman to the floor, gently caressing her face and her light blond hair._

_“Kid…” He called her. She did not answer._

_He fondled her hair and put a kiss on her cold forehead, before clasping his eyes in the agony and held her in his lap, sobbing._

_“Wake up… my little girl…”_

.

Now when Anna had gone back to her business, Gehrman took out that particular paper which had been staying with him for along time and looked at it. There were the lines that marked the memory.

_“The depression is chewing me and I am too weak to fight against it. It’s too great to bear.”_

When a person’s emotion went beyond how much they could help, usually, tears would be a way to say the word, noiselessly.

\---

Anna ignored every enemy on her way from the balcony and headed straight to the big double doors, where another enlarged head woman was standing and lamenting, “I have failed. Please, Lady Maria…” that made she feel sad.

She opened the door and was greeted by another huge patient but this one looked blue and more aggressive than the others. It attacked her right when it saw her stepped into the garden but fortunately Anna dodged. But for just a bit of her carelessness, she got hit by a fucking big meteor and she had no freaking idea how on Earth those creatures could keep doing it by raising their six – finger – hands into the air.

“Prasing the Sun?” She asked herself a very ridiculous question and tried a few slashes to the monsters, but they kept vanishing and respawning everywhere around her, making the huntress to groan in irritation and madness.

The second time she returned, things did not change much, except to the last moment of the last, when she felt like she needed another blood vial to heal. Soon after picking up one from her little bag and injected it, Anna got a feeling much similar to a stab in her chest and a punch right to her head, yet it was not from the enemy. Anna felt hard to breathe for a while and therefore she tried to run away from her opponents. Upon everything seemed to return to its usual state, the hunter saw her blood veins on her arms displaced and a burning heat came out from her chest. But to her surprise, the beasts’ attacks became so slow that the only movement she needed to avoid them was to merely step aside, and then, delivered a fierce cut to each of them, cutting her foes into two. Their dark blood sprayed on her suit, turning Anna into a duck in a swamp of stench and needless to say she didn’t welcome it. Well, at least she was used to have a shower like this.

The last one punched her in the nose, driving Anna insane as she thurst her blade into its head and stabbed mercilessly, until it fell to the ground, flat - headed like a ragged paper. Anna awoke from her bloodlust and wiped her face clean before picking up a key dropped by the fallen.

“Have I somehow changed?” She questioned herself while examining the key, as a familiar voice once again bumped inside her head…

_“Men leave as hunters, and return as beasts…”_

Gascoigne had told her that at the first friendly encounter of them. Sadly, the consequence hurt.

Anna recollected what and who she slew and how she ended their pitiful lives, how she cut them into pieces, how she tossed a sick man over the balcony, how she chopped their heads and how she rent their bodies open. Seemingly, the killing methods had become bloodier and more terrifying.

Shaking her head to gain back her consciousness, Anna sat down under the giant flowers and closed her eyes. Meditation could be useful then.

_*Half an hour later*_

Pacing around the garden soothed the good hunter. Her legs kept doing their job and her mind kept being busy with questions. She had plenty of it. The sick creatures she had just beaten, could it be a chance that they were also the patients in this research hall and more specifically, the patients who got badly affected by the experiments? And for not being a succession, they were abandoned and locked in this place, desparately yearning for a rescue? Experiments on human… Was the better tomorrow forged with the blood of visionaries, even if it meant blood of many innocent people who simply put their faith in the hands of ones who were called “harbingers” of the world?

Anna tightened her fists and sighed…

“Damn… I just need a medicine for my livestock…”

.

With the new key acquired, Anna wondered which way to go. Soon she got her answer by recognizing the door opposite to where she was standing. The hunter tiredly dragged herself to it, and once it was opened, the bell tolled loudly that startled her. Only when she set her steps into the wide room, wood – boarded floor, it stopped sounding, leaving Anna now alone in another strange location.

She saw a big tower clock stayed at a higher place, behind a richly decorated chair on which a slim body sat. Anna slowly stepped forward with her sword in hand and stopped in front of the person. She could not believe in her eyes. That was a young girl, probably a little over twenty or twenty - five, with light skin like a noble and pale blond hair covering one of her cheeks. On the floor near the seat was a pool of blood, leading to here, right below this person. The curious young woman knelt down on one heel, turning silent for a few seconds to see if there was any point of life at the other since she saw blood covering the woman’s white collar.

“Hi…” Anna broke the silence and waited for rejoinder.

Her patience was thin. Thus, she leaned closer to inspect.

“She’s a hunter, too.” Anna said, and turned to look at the table beside. Having picked up the photo, she could not see who was in there since it was damaged awfully. But still, she tried to focus and guess the people.

“Could this be… Gehrman? And…” At this point she turned to the chair and blinked her eyes, then brought her sight back to the photo. Her mind thought about Doll.

_“Oh no… Is this Maria? Fuck you, Simon. You tell me to kill a corpse, you bastard?”_

She came to stand in front of the lady and propped her hands on her knees, leaning forward again to examine the “corpse”. One of her hand extended, intending to turn the woman’s face so that she could see it clearly and unexpectedly, she was grabbed. The “could – have - been - dead” woman pulled Anna closer as well as raising herself up to lock a look on the curious hunter.

“You girl, are insufferable.”

Anna’s eyes got frozen as she began to walk backward with her hands hanged on the air.

 _“By the gods, Doll?”_ She wondered as the fact the woman who was slowly getting to her feet before her eyes looked so alike Doll. However, in her, Anna saw something different. Something strong and dangerous that was awaiting for her.

“Lady… Lady Maria?” The young one whispered.

“Oh I know very well, how the secret beckons so sweetly.” Maria delivered a smile as she reached behind her back to pick up the double – blade weapon, “Only an honest death will cure you know.”

She swung the blades both sides and from under her hat, her lips twitched.

“Liberate you, from your wild curiosity.”

Anna counted everytime she died from the match, perhaps it was because of her carelessness, or could also be for her mind was stuck in thinking something else and didn’t focus on Maria’s strike. Fifth times of dissolving, fifth times of bringing her back to the Nightmare. She remembered the last time Maria killed her and that was by an outstanding visceral attack, when the Old Hunter took the opportunity of Anna being staggered and lunged forward, punching through her rib – cage with her bare hand, before gently giving her a deadly warm embrace and whispered into her ear.

“Leave it be, good hunter. Sweep all thought of it from your mind. As your kind always have.”

Maria surely wasn’t a rude bastard who would throw Anna to the cold floor, but instead, she charmingly allowed the secret seeker to hold her wrist before completely falling beneath. Anna, in an attempt of clutching the last power, managed to say some words.

“My kind… is helping… I’ll be back…”

Maria frowned, “You’d better not to.” As she watched the poor idiot fading away.

She was not sure whether the little hunter would be back. That one was stubborn and dogged. Maria found herself hilarious calling that female “the little”. Evidently, Anna was much shorter than her and the point she could reach while they had a chance to stand close in the fight was only to Maria’s shoulder.

Anna stood right at the foggy entrance. She asked herself if there was any tip to help in the duel. She turned her back to the room and looked downstairs. The hunter didn’t want to give up because of what she heard and saw in Gehr--

“Oh, yes! That should help.” Thinking about the old man put a mild hope in her as she quickly rushed back to the storage room.

Bloodshed was not the only way to solve issues.

.

Maria sat on her chair, waiting. As soon as she saw a figure transferring through the big door, she got up, saber and dagger ready. And she was amazed when the stubborn hunter dropped her weapons to the floor without regretting.

“What are you doing?” Maria frowned.

“I don’t think you’ll strike an unarmed person.” Anna said, “I’m not fighting you.”

Maria suddenly turned invisible and reappeared in front of Anna, her sharp dagger pressed straight to the hunter’s neck soft skin, being enough to leave a bruise but not to powerful to make her bleed. Anna stood still in her position with her hands raised in the air as a mean of surrender.

“But I am.” Maria stated, softly but firmly, “Now stand and fight. Or head back to the hunt of beasts. I won’t hesitate to force you out of here.”

Anna fell silent, and then looked at Maria in the eyes.

“If you really wanted to kill me, I wouldn’t be standing here. Am I right, Lady Maria?”

Maria grasped the small hunter’s neck and pressed her again the wall, shouting, “Get out of here, you lass. I won’t tell you the third time…” She stared at Anna with her eyes filled with anger and command.

“I… Gehrman allows me…” A few words escaped Anna’s mouth while she was struggling gasping for air.

“What?”

“Yes, it’s him…”

“How could he? He should have known this is not a place for fun.” Maria narrowed her eyes in suspicion.

“I know… something between you two…” Anna pleaded, “Please…”

The Vileblood finally decided to let go of the girl and performed a few steps backward, watching Anna catching her breath.

“You shouldn’t lie to me.”

Anna shook her head immediately, “No, I don’t.” As she opened her satchel and took out the two letters, “I believe you should read these. You must know Ludwig, right?”

The hunter put the letters on the floor and went backward as she wanted to spare Maria a few space and tried to keep her hands on the air as she believed it wouldn’t give Maria any danger vibe. Maria, instead of answering, just took the letters and opened them. The Old Huntress frowned. They were truely the handwriting of Gehrman and Ludwig. The girl did not lie.

“Miss, can we spare a minute to talk?” Anna called upon Maria had read all the lines in the papers.

“What do you want?”

Anna scratched her head and pouted, “From what I feel at the old man and… at everything I went past on my way in this Nightmare… I think… it’s time we ended this.”

Maria couldn’t help but chuckled as she saw the huntress’s innocence, “Do you honestly think you yourself can handle it all? How many times have you died for that?”

Anna, in return, hissed, “I don’t really care, Lady. I just…” she gestured meaninglessly above her head as she was trying to find a suitable way for completing her speech, “Can’t resist. Do you see the others? They need a salvation. Some of them begged me to kill them. The others tortured themselves. By the Gods, I can’t stand this.”

The hunter was right. They all needed help. A fate worse than death wasn’t a gift to anyone. Maria knew it. She knew it clearly. But she did not acknowldge how they could do.

“Then what are you intending to do?”

Anna rubbed her chin.

“I’ll seek to the source of the Nightmare. But honestly, I might need an assistance.” She looked at Maria by the pupils eyes, “Can you, eh… with me?”

The request drove Maria agitated and if she was really true to her feelings, she would question Anna how she could be so easy to ask for help from the person that had taken her life more than once. Unbeknownst to the Lady, Anna seemed to find interest in the Old Hunter. The touch of her on Anna’s skin, well, that was quite amazing and lovely, even when that was a threat.

“Erm, and there’s something else.” Anna added, “I met a man. I don’t know who he really is. But he told me to go kill you. Of course, of course I refused… You see, I’m asking for your help, in fact.”

Their conversation was interrupted when they heard a sound coming from the door. That was the blue creature Anna had slain before meeting Lady Maria. It was alive and rushing toward them, swinging its arms and slamming to catch the two hunters it saw.

“What the hell is this sickness?” Anna raised a question and was enlightened by Maria.

“Living Failure.”

“Huh? What is that?”

“You saw the patients, didn’t? Yielding to Kins contained the downfall of some individuals. Horribly.”

With the severedly damaged head, the Living Failure still had some very little shed of sanity (or insanity?) as it dashed to where Maria was standing. Anna shot it from behind and shouted with all her strength.

“You piece of filth! Leave her alone!”

The monster changed its target by charging to Anna. The huntress drew her sword to block the attack but it was knocked out of her hand. With the gun holsterd, Anna struggled to escape from its range. Maria had a sense of what she must do as she performed a teleportation to Anna’s place and stabbed the damn creature in its chest, before Anna made the most of her chance to slice the neck of it.

They looked at the fallen one.

“I didn’t expect he crushed his own head.” Maria said.

Anna sighed in turn, “No… He didn’t.”

Maria turned her face to the other one, “You did?”

The hunter nodded, “I didn’t mean to…”

Anna sat down on her heels next to the monster, which seemed really dead this time, and her eyes wandered through its body.

“This one was in the big garden where there’re some good – smelling flowers.” Anna spent some seconds to think, “Speaking of garden…”

She took the balcony key from her bag and showed it to the Lady.

“I used this key Adeline gave me to open a door to another garden. A lot of patients were there, too. She told me about you, so I guess you two were close to each other.”

“You met her? How is she now?” Maria instantly asked upon hearing the Saint’s name.

But seeing Anna to avert her eyes was what made she uncomfortable. The hunter was speechless for a while, before managing to make a long sigh and shook her head looking at Maria.

“I’m sorry. I suppose I only have bad news.”

And she continued, “She asked me to give her fluid. I did. And… she…” Anna felt it hard to complete the sentence for the emotion of recollection was no easy for her, and perhaps for both of them, as Maria was now frozen on her spot, her face contorted while wrinkling her nose in an effort to calm the pain down. Yes, calm the pain down.

Maria slowly came closer to the good hunter and touched the key on her hand.

“Tell me, good hunter. Did she die a Blood Saint?”

Anna lifted her face to look at the taller one, “No… She died a heroine.”

Maria lowered her head, patting Anna’s shoulder without saying a word. The young one sensed it, the unspeakable and indescribable loss. Although Maria tried to hide it, she was so tall, and Anna read it in her eyes.

To Maria, she felt herself vulnerable and powerless. Maria had hoped Adeline would find comfort in the faint breeze that carried the scent of flowers from the outside. Unfortunately, Adeline did not fathom her intention. Recalling the memories of spending time together in the lab and also befriended from the childhood, Maria turned her back to the hunter, tasting the anguish.

Anna silently went to stand next to her.

“I cremated her. You want to go there?”

Maria glanced at her and nodded.

“Lead the way.”

\---

“Erm, Lady Maria. There’s a question I must ask you.”

“Go on.”

“How long have you been in this mess?” Anna asked while cleaning her gun.

“…” Maria thought. She didn’t seem to know what date it was.

“Lady Maria?”

“What date is today, good hunter?” Maria stared at the ground.

“Hmm… I don’t really know. I don’t count during the hunt, so… But I guess it hasn’t been a year yet since I left my homeland.” Anna turned to scrub her sword, “1890, I think?”

“Oh?” Maria uttered, “A century?”

“Time runs fast as dog on the field, huh?” Anna chuckled, “Don’t know what it would be after a few more years, then.”

“What do you mean?”

“Isn’t it clear, Miss? You’ve been here for over a hundred years. And me, been running around and hunting for almost 365 days without knowing when all these sorts of messes would be… cleaned…” Anna sighed, “I don’t know if it lasts forever.”

Maria crossed her legs and leaned on the wall behind, “It does last forever. Unless we find a way to stop it.”

A moment of soundlessness filled the room as they trade a look with each other. Maria watched the hunter cleaning her sword carefully and for no reason, she broke the quietness.

“You seem to care for your weapon so much, I see.”

Anna giggled, “Mm hm. I have a collection of armory in my house, in British Columbia. I inherit them from my family and my parents taught me a lot. So, of course, I know they need taking care of.”

Maria hummed, and again, she inquired, “You must be close enough to Gehrman. Tell me, girl, how is he now?”

“Well, he’s… I don’t know how to say. I just see that he’s physically good. But in his eyes, and by looking at him, I sense sadness, solitary and fear. The man told me the story of the Healing Church, his hunt, the mistake he and other fellows made in the Fishing Hamlet. I know he doesn’t want me to go here, but somehow, he permitted at last.”

Lady Maria rubbed her eyebrows, then clasped her hands together and put them under her chin, thinking again.

“You don’t give up because of that, do you? The journey is hard, cold and bloody. No seeker could go far that way without turning back.”

Anna nodded, “Maybe. To be honest, I just want to end all this shit and come back to where I was.”

“Then why don’t you leave this place, Anna? It’s not worth risking your life for those who are dead.”

“You folks don’t seem dead to me. Strange! I’m curious.” Anna cut in with a smile without looking at Maria, “By the way, I feel like it’s my duty to liberate you poor.”

“It could kill, you know that.” Maria smirked.

“It already killed me.” Anna rolled her eyes to the other woman, “But I managed to face it. Things always seem to be impossible until you make it.”

As she lifted her sword and observed it carefully before sheathing it into the scabbard, she smiled at Maria, “I believe we should try it. Will you join me, Lady Maria?”

They set the first step in their mutual journey because Maria had answered by a nod.


End file.
